(no subject)
According to Serbian president Boris Tadic, the investigation into Ratko Mladic's alleged crimes will extend to anyone who helped him evade arrest in the 16 years since he was indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Will this include Sir Malcom Rifkind MP, the former foreign secretary who now chairs the intelligence and security committee?
In 1995, four months after the indictment, the ICTY's chief prosecutor, Richard Goldstone visited Washington DC to ask for more energetic cooperation with the US. The Clinton administration agreed to hand over material, including phone intercepts obtained by GCHQ - but Rifkind vetoed it. Furthermore, as the Observer revealed two years later, "Mr Rifkind also refused to change the orders of British peacekeeping troops to enable them to arrest the two wanted Bosnian Serb leaders, Mladic and Radovan Karadzic."
Not that the opposition can make political capital from Rifkind's woeful conduct, given the antics of some Labour politicians - most notably the bullet-headed thug Dr John "Ratko" Reid (now Lord "Ratko" Reid), who spent three days in a geneva hotel in 1993 at the expense of Mladic's partner-in-crime, Radovan Karadzic. Reid omitted this hospitality from the register of member's interests, though he did declare two other serbian freebies that year, both paid for by Slobodan Milosevic, yet another of his chums who ended up in The Hague charged with war crimes.
Perhaps Maldic will now call Reid as a character witness - and General Sir Michael Rose, former commander of the UN protection force in bosnia, who described Mladic as "most charming". What are friends for if they can't rally round at moments like this?
sauce: copyed from private eye, issue 1290, page 9, third section headed "war crimes latest". applogised for any spelling errors in the peice. will go in and charge anything thats out, but i tryed to copy it exactly, so. also, do we have an ITCY or war crimes tag?.
note to mods: private eye dosent have an online edition, and this was all copyed out by hand. the sauce is private eye, issue 129, page nine, third section, headed "war crimes lastest".
In 1995, four months after the indictment, the ICTY's chief prosecutor, Richard Goldstone visited Washington DC to ask for more energetic cooperation with the US. The Clinton administration agreed to hand over material, including phone intercepts obtained by GCHQ - but Rifkind vetoed it. Furthermore, as the Observer revealed two years later, "Mr Rifkind also refused to change the orders of British peacekeeping troops to enable them to arrest the two wanted Bosnian Serb leaders, Mladic and Radovan Karadzic."
Not that the opposition can make political capital from Rifkind's woeful conduct, given the antics of some Labour politicians - most notably the bullet-headed thug Dr John "Ratko" Reid (now Lord "Ratko" Reid), who spent three days in a geneva hotel in 1993 at the expense of Mladic's partner-in-crime, Radovan Karadzic. Reid omitted this hospitality from the register of member's interests, though he did declare two other serbian freebies that year, both paid for by Slobodan Milosevic, yet another of his chums who ended up in The Hague charged with war crimes.
Perhaps Maldic will now call Reid as a character witness - and General Sir Michael Rose, former commander of the UN protection force in bosnia, who described Mladic as "most charming". What are friends for if they can't rally round at moments like this?
sauce: copyed from private eye, issue 1290, page 9, third section headed "war crimes latest". applogised for any spelling errors in the peice. will go in and charge anything thats out, but i tryed to copy it exactly, so. also, do we have an ITCY or war crimes tag?.
note to mods: private eye dosent have an online edition, and this was all copyed out by hand. the sauce is private eye, issue 129, page nine, third section, headed "war crimes lastest".